Recovering from their loss at Fort Zumwalt East a week ago, the Spartan football team had a rebound last Friday and triumphed over the Fort Zumwalt South Bulldogs with a final score of 43-0.

The entire game consisted of the Spartans controlling the field, never letting up on the Bulldogs. The Spartans opened the game with a series of successful plays, which eventually earned them a place two yards away from the end zone, allowing senior quarterback Brody Allen to then run the ball to score a touchdown. The team then followed the touchdown up with an extra point. With a minute left in the first quarter, senior running back Kendall Morris then made a 28 yard touchdown run, which was then followed up by an extra point, boosting the team’s score to 14-0.

The Spartans continued their scoring streak into the second quarter. Again making numerous plays to earn them a place next to the end zone, and again allowing Allen to make the final run with the ball to score a touchdown for the team. Cheering and excitement from the Spartan Nation increased tremendously within the last four minutes of the second quarter as Allen handed the ball off to Morris, and Morris sprinted past the Bulldogs’ defense and dashed down the field for 85 yards to score a touchdown. The Spartans then topped off the first half with a sequence of successful plays down the field, allowing Morris to score yet another touchdown within the final minute of the second quarter, along with the team scoring an extra point, bringing the score to 33-0.

The second half was just as beneficial for the Spartans. In the middle of the third quarter senior kicker Ben Burns made a field goal which brought the score to 36-0. Then later near the end of the third, with 50 seconds remaining on the clock, senior running back Debois Hill ran the ball into the end zone, bringing the score to 42-0. The touchdown was then followed up by an extra point, making the score 43-0. The fourth quarter consisted of the Spartans simply preventing the Bulldogs from making any significant series of plays, and by the end of the end of the game the Spartans had achieved victory over the Bulldogs.

The team’s success was due in part to the way they prepared over the week before the game. Head Coach Todd Berck explained the faults the team discovered by watching footage of their previous performance at Fort Zumwalt East.

“We learned a lot. We had some alignment issues with our backfield that caused a couple of the fumbles [last game]. We were just too close, and so we made some adjustments there,” said Coach Berck. “Also, we had some busts on defense on coverages that we fixed, and [we] simplified things up and let our athletes play.”

The preparation the team went through the preceding week proved to be successful. Senior safety Clay Goodman agreed that the team’s success was due to the team’s preparation, but also noted that the motivation the whole team held while practicing was an important factor as well.

“We had to learn from turning the ball over. We did a lot of running as a team for all the turnovers that we had to help us learn to control the ball,” said Goodman. “We all just studied film and we all worked hard at practice. We were all more hyped at practice, I don’t know, [it seemed like] the energy was up higher.”

Along with proper preparation and motivation, Goodman believed the team could also pull inspiration from the game for future games to come.

“We [learned] that if we do control the ball, and not have turnovers, and not give up big plays, that we can easily dominate the [other] team,” said Goodman. “We have the ability.”